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Mothers of Gen Z protest victims accuse Ruto of abandoning them, one year later

Mothers of Gen Z protest victims accuse Ruto of abandoning them, one year later
Gen Z protesters barricade a section of Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi on Tuesday July 2, 2024. PHOTO/Bernard Malonza

Mothers of Gen Zs who were killed by police during the anti-2024 Finance Bill demonstrations have accused President William Ruto of discrimination for failing to compensate them as he promised.

The elderly women criticised President Ruto for acting swiftly by giving the family of Albert Ojwang, who was murdered in police custody about two weeks ago, Ksh2 million, yet he appears to have abandoned them despite enduring the pain of losing their children for a year now.

They vowed to participate in the protests planned for next week, on June 25, 2025, in commemoration of their sons to push the government to heed their cry for justice.

“I will be there in the protests if that will compel the government to compensate me for the life of my son Ericson Kyallo. I don’t care whether the police will kill me as they did to him last year,” said Caroline Nduku.

The mothers took issue with the State for ignoring the magnitude of the death of their children after former Nairobi Central Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) Doris Mugambi, now serving as the Kiambu County Police Commander, denied in court on Thursday that police under her command used live ammunition on unarmed protestors.

Jecinta Anyango, mother of Kennedy Onyango, a 14-year-old who was shot by police in Rongai during the protest, condemned the utterances by Mugambi, terming them as insensitive.

“She cannot accept that police were using live bullets, we know them because they were not captured on camera. That the same way they shot my son, who was just shielding himself for safety. He had gone to the shop to buy a book when he was caught up in the melee,” an emotional Anyango said.

Other parents recounted harrowing experiences after the death of their children at the hands of people they suspected were police deployed to contain protests that were happening across the country.

Mary Mwangi, whose son Kenneth Njeru was among the protestors who were gunned down outside Parliament, said that he was the breadwinner of the family and he supported her to educate his only sibling, who is in primary school.

She denied claims that police did not shoot protestors, noting that when a post-mortem was conducted on Njeru, a bullet she believed killed her son was retrieved from his head. She said that she saw the bullet.

“We are calling for justice for our son because we are sure that it is the police who shot them,” Mwangi said.

Maria Khayanga, a Nakuru resident, was inconsolable as she narrated how her son Austin Onyisa, then 17 years old and living with autism, was shot by police, yet he had gone to look for his younger brother, also autistic when the protests intensified.

“All my three children, including Onyisa, are disabled. I was very heartbroken when I got the news that they had shot him, yet he was not even on the street to the protests,” Khayanga said while she displayed Onyisa’s disability certificate.

Through their lawyer, Njanja Maina, the families blamed the Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) for delaying in the investigation so that the police officers who murdered their kin could be prosecuted

“IPOA are actually holding back the means of justice. We do not see why it has taken a whole year for them to come up with evidence,” Maina said, adding that they have never told the families that they have taken up the inquest, or forwarded it to the Director of Public Prosecution.

The families called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the police officers who shot and killed their kin, adding that they know them by their names and the commanders under whom they served.

“Why are they still free? Why are they still in uniform? We demand that the State acknowledge the pain and suffering it has caused families who were forced to bury their children and then suffer in silence,” said Tom Mwadime, whose brother Andrew Mawasi also died during the protest.

Meanwhile, lawyer Maina maintained that next week’s protests will go on as planned despite the police refusing to formally acknowledge their notification.

“We tried to follow up with them, made different calls to them, but they refused to acknowledge any receipt, saying there were meetings, high-security meetings, and they were planning for things,” Maina added.

She said that they are comforting themselves that the police will protect the protestors next week, following Nairobi Regional Police Commander George Seda’s address to the media, where he claimed to have received their letter and that the police would provide enhanced security during the protests.

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